Donald Trump doubled down on his criticism of past administrations, military leadership, and the nation of Pakistan for not capturing or killing Osama bin Laden sooner in a series of Monday morning tweets.
“Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools! We no longer pay Pakistan the $Billions because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That’s ENDING!”
Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools!..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2018 [1]
….We no longer pay Pakistan the $Billions because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That’s ENDING!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2018 [2]
The comments come one day after Trump escalated his war of words against William McRaven, a retired Navy SEAL and Special Operations commander who oversaw the 2011 raid that killed bin Laden, calling him a “Hillary Clinton fan” and an “Obama backer” who should have gotten to bin Laden faster.
“Wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that, wouldn’t it have been nice?” Trump said during an interview with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”
Trump’s comments have set off a firestorm of controversy for the president, whose handling of the military has come under fire despite his professed support for the armed forces.
Regarding Trump’s claim that he predicted Osama bin Laden, that is a LIE [3].
Trump was quickly called out on his lie:
This is almost too dumb to fact check, but the reason why Trump mentioned Osama bin Laden in his book—published in 2000 & aptly titled “The America We Deserve”—is because OBL had already become, as Trump writes, “public enemy number one,” due to his role in ’98 embassy bombings pic.twitter.com/VXB5AmryK9 [4]
— Daniel Schulman (@DanielSchulman) November 19, 2018 [5]
Trump resurrects a Four-Pinocchio claim from the campaign! He did not predict bin Laden before 9/11. His 2000 book had a single, offhand reference to OBL. CNN had already run in 1999 a report that OBL was planning an attack the US –> https://t.co/KlPuYPAQ83 [6] https://t.co/l0uu9Ap5t2 [7]
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) November 19, 2018 [8]
If only the intelligence community had read Trump's book https://t.co/G3ta2ijjIe [9]
— Shannon Pettypiece (@spettypi) November 19, 2018 [10]
waiting for this joke of a president to add that he'd have run into that hideout & killed Bin Laden himself. https://t.co/ha97oimM0j [11]
— danger_pig (@rulerstsd) November 19, 2018 [12]