CHRIS CUOMO (HOST): Now, you understand that as an obvious inconsistency or is there an explanation for that?
SAM CLOVIS: I think it's the context of the second conversation there is the fact he was asked a hypothetical and I think a lot of this is in the context of what the campaign has offered up many times, that the United States simply today without the strong economy we simply don't have the reach, and the global reach that we should have and sometimes other countries are going to have to do things that they may or may not have had to do in the past to defend themselves because we simply can't be there all the time until such time as we can get our economy back up to speed and we're able to extend the umbrella of the United States security blanket on the rest of the world.
CUOMO: Understood, Sam, but either you believe that Japan should have nukes or you don't.
[…]
CUOMO: One of the other things that is more simple, less nuanced, let's say. A big spear during the primaries for Donald Trump has been “you were for the Iraq War and I wasn't.” He used it probably 100 times in the primaries.
CLOVIS: Right.
CUOMO: There are now questions about, is that true? We know after that the war started and later on Trump said he was against it. This is a man who is on the record all the time certainly back then in 2000. We haven't been able to find anything where Donald Trump said he was against the Iraq War while it was being debated. Is there something that can be provided by the campaign? Wouldn't you argue that that's not subtle, that's not nuanced, that's about whether it's true or false.
CLOVIS: Honestly, I can't address that, Chris, I don't know.
CUOMO: But it matters, right?
CLOVIS: I suppose it could matter. But I do think his that his position that he has stated is very accurate and there is a lot of evidence that supports the fact that he was against the war once the war started.
