WATCH: Fox News Defended Trump for Having No Idea Who Soleimani Was in 2015
President Donald Trump just ordered the killing of Qasem Soleimani, but while he was running for president he was caught completely clueless about the Iranian military leader, and Fox News personalities defended him to the hilt over the gaffe.
During a September 3, 2015 interview, radio host Hugh Hewitt told Trump he wanted to “turn to some of the commander-in-chief questions,” and when he asked about Soleimani, Trump didn’t just have no clue who he was, he then pretended to know and misidentified him as a U.S. ally.
“Are you familiar with General Soleimani?” Hewitt asked, to which Trump hesitantly replied “Yes,” then asked Hewitt to “go ahead, give me a little, go ahead, tell me.”
“He runs the Quds Forces,” Hewitt said.
“Yes, okay, right,” Trump agreed, then added, “The Kurds, by the way, have been horribly mistreated by…”
“No, not the Kurds, the Quds Forces, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Forces,” Hewitt corrected Trump, then pointed out “is the bad guys.”
Trump then spent a good chunk of the interview accusing Hewitt of asking a “Gotcha!” question.
The next day, Fox & Friends covered the gaffe, with Tucker Carlson scoffing at the question and co-host Anna Kooiman noting Soleimani’s importance as the commander of Iran’s version of “the Navy SEALS,” but pointing out that Trump “bones up” on foreign policy by watching cable news.
Following the Hewitt clip — again, during which Trump pretended to know who Soleimani was and confused him with a U.S. ally — co-host Clayton Morris asked “Is this important?” while Kooiman argued that Trump’s supporters figured “he will surround himself with the people that will teach him, he will bone up before he goes into negotiations and he will be just fine.”
Carlson noted that “Carly Fiorina was asked the same question, she she got it right,” but then added “My question is a political one, will anybody care, is there any Donald Trump voters who is listening to this this morning thinking wait, he confused the Quds Forces with the Kurds? I’m out.”
The segment concluded with Morris asking viewers to weigh in on whether this was a “Gotcha!” question as Carlson literally giggled, but they appeared to have answered it during the segment with a graphic that read “Quds, Kurds, Who Cares?”
Looks like Carlson isn’t giggling now. He bashed Trump Thursday night for “lumbering” into war with the Soleimani killing.
Many of the network’s personalities went on to answer that question as well. Geraldo Rivera said “I don’t know Hugh Hewitt from a hole in the wall, but I do know a ‘Gotcha!’ question when I see one, and that was a ‘Gotcha!’ question,” and joked “What is this, Celebrity Jeopardy?”
Greg Gutfeld said “He misheard,” and joked “It’s a big story, I’m glad we opened with it.”
On the news side, the coverage was more balanced, but anchor Leland Vittert made a point of attacking Hewitt, saying it was “a little rich” for him to be asking the question after Hewitt criticized Fox News for asking tough questions at a debate.
Mediabuzz host Howie Kurtz framed the issue as only of concern to “media types,” but panelist Matt Lewis argued that it was an “indictment” of Trump as a candidate, and pointed out that the excuse that Trump “misheard” the question didn’t wash.
“But he said ‘Soleimani,’ who is the head of the Quds Force, so the confusion with Kurds doesn’t make sense,” Lewis pointed out.
Watch the clips above via Fox News.
