‘Bullsh*t’: Fox News Gets Flak for Claiming Old Interview ‘Backs Up’ Trump on Iraq

Josh FeldmanSep 27th, 2016, 6:32 pm
 

Donald Trump has declared that he was adamantly against the Iraq War from the beginning, and almost all the fact-checkers say that’s false. But a Fox News fact-check begs to differ.

See, one of the pieces of evidence Trump cites is an old interview he did on Fox with Neil Cavuto in 2003 in which, in response to a question on Iraq, Trump said this:

“Well, he [Bush] has either got to do something or not do something, perhaps, because perhaps shouldn’t be doing it yet and perhaps we should be waiting for the United Nations, you know. He’s under a lot of pressure. He’s — I think he’s doing a very good job. But, of course, if you look at the polls, a lot of people are getting a little tired. I think the Iraqi situation is a problem. And I think the economy is a much bigger problem as far as the president is concerned.”

Now, at the most, this is a comment that expresses skepticism, but not strident opposition. And remember, when asked about going into Iraq in 2002, Trump said, “Yeah, I guess so.”

Trump has argued that there’s no public record because he wasn’t a big political figure back then, and he could make the argument that he didn’t have particularly strong feelings until after the U.S. went in and he saw what a mistake it was.

But instead, he’s digging in deep in his insistence that he was against going into Iraq from the start (even invoking one of his biggest supporters as his alibi), and he has insisted that his foresight in his opposition to Iraq shows he has better judgment than Hillary Clinton.

And despite the Fox fact-check claiming that the Cavuto interviews appears to bolster Trump’s case, you know who doesn’t feel that way? Cavuto!

Yes, back in February (as flagged by WaPo fact-checker Glenn Kessler), Cavuto picked up on this around the same time other fact-checkers did and said that despite Trump’s claims about his Iraq war opposition in that interview, “he could have left you with a different impression” back then.

After playing the old clip of Trump, Cavuto wasn’t sure about it necessarily backing up Trump’s claims, while guest Meghan McCain mocked the idea that Trump acts like he was out in the streets with Code Pink or something.

So given all that, it’s unsurprising that Fox got some flak for that dubious fact-check:

A Fox News reporter took to Twitter to defend the piece:

[image via screengrab]

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Josh Feldman - Senior Editor

Josh Feldman is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: josh@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @feldmaniac