Donald Trump appeared to claim Wednesday that he saw footage of American cash being unloaded off of a plane in Iran, but the video he seems to be referencing shows hostages from Iran arriving in Geneva, Switzerland, the Washington Post reported.
While reporting on the $400 million payment from the United States to Iran that was part of a settlement for a failed decades-old arms deal, Fox News played footage that’s been labeled as the scene of American hostages arriving in Geneva in January, according to the Washington Post. But during a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, Trump seemed to think that the footage was taken in Iran.
“Remember this: Iran — I don’t think you heard this anywhere but here — Iran provided all of that footage, the tape of taking that money off the airplane,” Trump said, according to the Post. “Right?”
“Now, here’s the amazing thing: Over there, where that plane landed, top secret, you don’t have a lot of paparazzi. You know, the paparazzi doesn’t do so well over there, right?” he continued. “And they have a perfect tape, done by obviously a government camera, and the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane. Right? That means that in order to embarrass us further, Iran sent us the tapes. Right? It’s a military tape, it’s a tape that was a perfect angle, nice and steady, nobody getting nervous because they’re gonna be shot because they’re shooting a picture of money pouring off a plane.”
U.S. officials told the Associated Press that they weren’t aware of any footage showing cash being delivered to Iran.
And the Washington Post asked the Trump campaign whether the footage of hostages arriving in Geneva played by Fox News is the video that Trump saw.
“Yes,” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks replied to the Post. “Merely the b-roll footage included in every broadcast.”
