Trump Campaign: It’s Clinton’s Fault That North Korea Conducted Nuclear Test!

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks about national security, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016, at the Union League in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Donald Trump’s campaign insisted on Friday that Hillary Clinton somehow bears responsibility for North Korea’s latest nuclear weapons test.

“Clinton promised to work to end North Korea’s nuclear program as Secretary of State, yet the program has only grown in strength and sophistication,” Trump’s senior communications advisor, Jason Miller, wrote in a statement. “Hilary Clinton’s North Korean policy is just one more calamitous diplomatic failure from a failed Secretary of State.”

North Korean officials confirmed that they conducted their fifth nuclear test explosion on Friday, in what South Korea’s president called an act of “fanatic recklessness.”

President Barack Obama released a statement strongly condemning the “provocation” and announcing that sanctions against the dictatorship would be intensified.

While the Trump campaign is correct that four of North Korea’s nuclear tests were conducted after Clinton was named secretary of state in 2008, building up the country’s nuclear program has been a focus of North Korean leaders since the 1950s. North Korea’s first nuclear test came in 2006, during George W. Bush’s administration, and two have been conducted in the last eight months, long after Clinton left the State Department.

Trump, for his part, has proposed some radical options for curtailing North Korea’s nuclear program that run contrary to the United States’ non-proliferation policy. These include allowing other countries like Japan to have “nukes” at their disposal. The Republican nominee has also said he would “never, ever” rule out using nuclear weapons to combat the Islamic State terror group.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. What a buffoon…

  2. Avatar for zsak zsak says:

    Trump’s the one who would willing push the button, he’s projecting.

  3. Actually, it is W’s and Cheney’s fault for trashing the treaties we had with N Korea that permitted inspections.

  4. He’ll have to explain how a woman in a terrible weakened state of health that began years ago and today has progressed to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, organ failure, deafness and a weight gain of about 135 lbs. could do anything so malevolent.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

53 more replies

Participants

Avatar for gateau Avatar for victorabrahamsen Avatar for ajaykalra Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for jeffgee1 Avatar for meri Avatar for sysprog Avatar for humpback Avatar for theod Avatar for vonq Avatar for mantan Avatar for sonsofares Avatar for weatherservo9 Avatar for lastroth Avatar for theghostofeustacetilley Avatar for dickweed Avatar for darrtown Avatar for bromeando Avatar for jeanniesee Avatar for ncgirl741 Avatar for grack Avatar for dr00gs Avatar for zsak Avatar for maximus

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: