Joe.My.God. LGBT News
CNN’s Peter Bergen writes:
President Trump spoke to Chris Wallace of Fox News on Sunday and made a number of false claims about the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. Wallace mentioned the commander of that operation, retired Admiral Bill McRaven, who has publicly criticized Trump for his denigration of the media.
Trump responded that McRaven is a “Hilary Clinton backer and an Obama-backer.” In fact, McRaven took no position on the 2016 presidential election in which Clinton ran against Trump. In Sunday’s interview, Trump went on to claim that bin Laden was “living in Pakistan right next to the military academy, everybody in Pakistan knew he was there.”
This is complete nonsense. When I was researching a book about the hunt for bin Laden, I spoke to dozens of key government, intelligence and military officials involved in the bin Laden operation and they all said that the Pakistanis had no clue that al Qaeda’s leader was living in the city of Abbottabad, Pakistan where he was found.
Mic reports:
Trump’s claim in his 2015 book that he called on the U.S. to “take out” bin Laden in 2000 — before the 9/11 attack — was rated “mostly false” by Politifact.
The entire brouhaha with McRaven and bin Laden was sparked when Wallace asked Trump to defend his attacks on the media. In doing so, Wallace brought up McRaven, who has said that Trump’s attacks on the free press were “the greatest threat to democracy.”
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
….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
Here’s an article on Trump’s latest lie regarding Osama bin Laden!
This is literally the only reference to ObL in the entire book.
“One day we’re told that a shadowy figure with no fixed address named Osama bin-Laden is public enemy number one”https://t.co/pozYcNu7qJ
— Ryan Hill (@RyanHillMI) November 19, 2018
So Trump ended a week where he was criticized for disrespecting the troops by attacking the Navy SEALS for not getting Bin Laden soon enough
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) November 18, 2018
Adm. McRaven responds: “I admire all presidents, regardless of their political party, who uphold the dignity of the office … I stand by my comment that the President’s attack on the media is the greatest threat to our democracy in my lifetime.” https://t.co/VRvAEaA0l1
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 19, 2018
“I think the President’s comments show a fundamental misunderstanding of … how military operations & the chain of command operate.”
Fmr. DHS Press Sec @DaveLapanDC on Trump’s criticism of retired Adm McRaven’s role in OBL raid https://t.co/9sKpUcuNJe pic.twitter.com/1lQ5bFfydJ— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) November 19, 2018
To veterans who supported @realDonaldTrump,
Your 5 time draft dodging coward President has attacked John McCain, a Gold star family and now Navy Seal Retired Adm. William McRaven, the architect of the Bin Laden raid. How much longer will USA armed forces support this loser? pic.twitter.com/6RhVvIt3Xz
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) November 19, 2018