Donald Trump on Sunday said 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton fabricated claims that the Islamic State is using his comments on the GOP primary stump to recruit militants.
“There’s no such video. She just made it up,” said Mr. Trump, who leads the GOP presidential field in national polls and was responding to comments Mrs. Clinton made at Saturday night’s Democratic candidates debate.
Fact-checkers have blasted Mr. Trump for many of his own claims on the trail, notably his assertion that thousands of Muslims cheered in New Jersey after terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.
“They turn out to be wrong, also,” he told ABC’s “This Week,” offering no new evidence but claiming people don’t find his comments so controversial after they think about them.
Mr. Trump railed against Mrs. Clinton as a politician who is all talk and no action, and defended his embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it would be “despicable” if the former KGB officer had killed reporters or other innocents, but that no one has proven it.
“He’s making minced meat out of our president,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Putin on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He is a strong leader. I mean, you would like me to call him a weak leader, he’s a strong leader. And I’m not going to be politically correct.”
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Mr. Trump reiterated his argument that U.S. leaders kill people, too, citing the war in Iraq.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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