In First Debate, Trump Still Lying About His Support For the Iraq War

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the presidential debate with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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In the first presidential debate of 2016, Donald Trump continued to deny that he supported the Iraq War, launching into a bizarre rant about conversations he had with Sean Hannity as evidence of his opposition even though he told Howard Stern in 2002 that he supported the war.

“If somebody would call up Sean Hannity, before the war started, he and I used to have arguments about the war. I said it’s a terrible and stupid thing, it’s going destabilize the Middle East and that’s exactly what it’s done,” Trump said during the debate.

As debate moderator Lester Holt tried to correct Trump’s insistence that “the record shows otherwise,” Trump launched into a long diatribe about his record.

“Should not show otherwise. The record shows that I’m right,” Trump said. “When I did an interview with Howard Stern, very lightly, first time anyone has asked me that, I said lightly, I don’t know, maybe, who knows, essentially. I then did an interview with Neil Cavuto. We talked about the economy, it’s more important. I spoke to Sean Hannity which everybody refuses to call Sean Hannity. I had numerous conversations with Sean Hannity at Fox.”

Trump lamented that no reporters ever call Hannity to ask him about those conversations, but after the debate, Hannity granted Trump a one on one interview.

“Do you know how many times we had conversations about that? And you told me I was wrong in fairness. You did tell me over and over again I was wrong. And we had passion. But it was a respectful debate,” Hannity said after the debate.

“It was respectful but I understood where you were coming from. I thought it would destabilize the middle east. I didn’t know it would be managed so poorly. But I felt it was something that had to be discussed because I was against the war in Iraq,” Trump responded.

We will see if any other reporters reach out to Hannity per Trump’s suggestion. Stay tuned.

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