“Yeah, I guess so” is a pretty weak statement of support, and since it appears to be his only public statement at the time, it seems like Trump could have easily gotten away with saying something like “well, I wanted to support the President, but I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it, and when I saw what a mess it was, I changed my mind,” and then focused on attacking Hillary for her vote to give Bush the authority to invade.
But as Josh M and others have pointed out, Trump not only cannot admit being even a little wrong, not only cannot admit changing his mind, he feels the need to pretend that he was totally, completely right, and way ahead of everyone else. Thus he must pretend he was strongly opposed to the invasion from the start, despite the fact of a recorded public statement directly contradicting his claim, and not a shred of evidence supporting it.
So he ends up squandering his opportunity to effectively attack Hillary, instead get caught up in re-litigating his own lies, making the story about whether or not he’s lying. Which of course he is, as is pretty obvious to all but his already-strongly-committed supporters.
We are so lucky that this guy is unable to control himself…well, I mean as long as he loses. If he somehow wins, that inability to control himself makes possible a whole range of dangerous and deadly blunders, especially in the area of foreign policy and national security.
Oh, absolutely. I think Stern’s show is trash, but there is no way Trump would win this one.
That’s what makes this so perfect. If Trump overcomes his base instincts and ignores Stern, I hope Stern keeps poking him in public. He’ll have to give in and lash out eventually.
First off, the ‘Iraq War’ was really the Afghanistan/Bin Laden project that morphed into the ‘take Iraq’s oil’ project.
Trump is not only on the, take the oil train, he’s chief engineer.
So he’s against the war for oil but all for taking the oil because somehow ripping off other nation’s treasure would stop the hatred towards America and end wars for oil or some such horseshit.
People that want to believe in HO, do, because they want to. Everyone else is just about at overload with his bullshit and obnoxiousness.
Sure, Howard’s show is trash - I have to admit it’s an occasional guilty pleasure for me, but I can totally understand a person’s distaste for it. But even then, it’s still classier than Trump.
Nothing against Howard Stern on this, but why is this even a headline? We’ve all heard the recording of Trump’s interview on the show, and Stern adds no new information here. I do congratulate him though on being mentioned in a presidential debate. I guess Alicia Machado can check that off her bucket list too.
What’s real news is Trump flat-out lying about what he said on the show (“I don’t know, maybe, who knows”) vs what our lying ears tell us he said (“Yeah, I guess so”).
Let’s put some things in perspective. In 2002-03, Trump was in no electoral capacity whatsoever to decide American policy foreign or domestic. He was instead busy putting together multiple women judging platforms (beauty pageants), and filing his 4th bankruptcy during the run-up to the war in Iraq. Whatever his thoughts were during that time were rather irrelevant but if he was for invading Iraq then he was in-line with a majority of the country. His answer to Stern was “yeah I guess” simply because he didn’t care. Again, he was busy filing bankruptcy and making sure his beauty pageant women were only consuming 500 calories/day so as not to appear as Ms. Piggy on the stage.
That he’s lying about his stance now is 1) typical for Trump, and 2) absolutely beside the point that war in Iraq meant nothing to him because he was consumed with himself and not with minutiae of the biggest foreign policy blunder since Vietnam. Compare all that to what Sec. Clinton was doing and how her entire life has been devoted to making this country better.
Also, I have to note that I’m an avid Stern show listener. Right after Stern mentioned Trump being for the war in Iraq, he also mentioned to a guest that day (Mad Dog) that he was voting for Hillary. Stern has been a big Hillary supporter since Day 1. Check the transcript and add that to this story.
Like I said in my comment, notice Trump answers Stern by saying “yeah I guess.” He had no concern for the war in Iraq, he’s for it or against it- he didn’t care one way or another. He was too busy planning beauty pageants and filing for bankruptcy in 2003. In 2002-03 Trump Hotel and Casinos had imploded and he was busy selling off assets and laying off workers to minimize his bankruptcy woes of which he filed in 2004. 2002-2003 was a very busy time for Trump but war in Iraq was no where on his plate. Judging titties and covering his ass during a 4th bankruptcy was.
Oh, I think those in the media can see it and even fully grasp it. They just don’t care. Even Chuck Toad can see it’s bullshit. But he will also tell you that it’s not his job to call bullshit on bullshitters. His job is to repeat what bullshitters say verbatim without editorial comment.
As for the electorate, some of them just like bullshit.
Yes, he would be better off claiming he was indifferent about it, not claiming he was against it. When you say “I guess so” that sounds indifferent, though part about how it should have been done in 1991 leans toward “for it”.
So he could have claimed he was indifferent and did not give a shit about it, but no way he can claim he was against it.
But also, if he claimed he did not even give a shit or was not really paying attention to a WAR, that would be a big strike against him for being President for sure.
