President Donald Trump retains repeating a falsehood about Osama bin Laden — maybe within the hopes that the extra he says it, the extra folks will consider it.
The president spoke in regards to the late founding father of al Qaeda on Sunday whereas aboard Air Power One, the place he was accompanied by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and reporters.
Trump spoke to the gaggle about Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by U.S. forces and flown to New York Metropolis, alongside his spouse, to face narco-terrorism charges. Whereas speaking in regards to the deposed chief, the president pivoted to an astonishing declare about bin Laden.
“Lindsey talked about bin Laden. Are you aware I wrote about bin Laden one 12 months earlier than the assault within the World Commerce Middle and I stated, you bought to go after bin Laden?” Trump falsely claimed. “It was in my guide and only a few folks wish to say that, but it surely was in my guide.”
“You understand that I believe you’ve truly talked about it,” he instructed a reporter. “But when they might have listened to me, they might have taken out bin Laden and also you wouldn’t have had the World Commerce Middle tragedy.”
Trump has made this declare numerous times over the years, regardless of many declaring that no such point out is made within the guide he’s referencing, referred to as “The America We Deserve,” which he printed in 2000.
Whereas Trump does point out bin Laden within the guide and the potential for one more terror assault that may be larger than the 1993 bombing on the World Commerce Middle, he doesn’t particularly hyperlink the 2 collectively.
“Someday we’re instructed {that a} shadowy determine with no fastened handle named Osama bin Laden is public enemy primary, and U.S. jetfighters lay waste to his camp in Afghanistan,” Trump wrote at the time. “He escapes again below some rock, and some information cycles later it’s on to a brand new enemy and new disaster.”
Again in 2019, Trump as soon as once more claimed that he by no means “will get any credit score” for allegedly warning the U.S. about bin Laden again in 2000 (although the chief was positioned on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in 1999).
“In that guide a few 12 months earlier than the World Commerce Middle was blown up, I stated, ‘There’s anyone named Osama bin Laden. You’d higher kill him or take him out,’” he stated during a press conference the place he introduced the loss of life of ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“Let’s put it this fashion ― if they might have listened to me, a number of issues would have been totally different,” Trump stated on the time.
