Fact Checking Now This Devastating Collage Of Old Trump Clips On Soleimani and Iran

[UPDATE Jan 5, 2020:  Sorry, fixed the title from Here and Now to Now This.  It's an understandable, but unacceptable error.]

Here's the video.  But just as the Right is fed lie after lie by Fox and their collaborators, the Left needs to also be careful it's not taken in as well.  This video destroys Trump, but is it accurate.  First watch the video.

Trump didn't even know who Suleimani is/was 🤦‍♀️pic.twitter.com/8f1ChRLY2M

— Hear Me Roar (@Stop_Trump20) January 4, 2020

So let's check all the clips in this video:

1.  Trump interview with Hugh Hewitt Sept. 2015 on Soleimani

The first interview they excerpt comes from a Hugh Hewitt interview in September 2015.  Hewitt asks Trump what he thinks of Gen. Soleimani head of the Quds.  Trump hears Kurds and it takes awhile before that is cleared up.  Trump says he doesn't have to worry about Gotcha questions because all these guys will be gone before he becomes president.

The original Youtube of this conversation is here.  It's 6:11 minutes long.  It's really just audio with a cover picture that includes Hewitt and Trump..  Now Hear This has added new photos to make the video livelier, but the conversation is the same, though shortened considerably.

The Washington Examiner, a conservative paper, confirms this 2016 Trump interview with Hugh Hewitt about Soleimani


2.  Trump March 16, 2016 interview "I'm speaking with myself  . . ."

The second interview is a from a Morning Joe show on MSNBC on March 16, 2016.   They're talking about his primary victory in Florida the day before and he's asked who he consults with.

"I'm speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain, and I've said a lot of things..."  

That's cut off rather abruptly.

I found the original MSNBC interview at Factbase.  The quote is from 3:51-4:03. They have transcript of the whole interview with the matching clips next to each section.  You can check it here.  Here's the excerpt which includes the rest of his response.

"I'm speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things. In fact, in my book in 2000, I talked about Osama bin Laden and I do remember somebody putting the book in front of Joe and Joe saying no way he talked about it, no way he wrote about Osama bin Laden before the World Trade Center came down. And they said no, he really did. And I remember Joe looking at it and saying, I don't believe it"

[AP has a fact check on his claim that he warned about bin Laden before the World Trade Center came down.  bin Laden is mentioned briefly in the book, but more mocking Clinton for saying he's an important target, and not right before 9/11.]


3.  Rep. Max Rose Interview

Next comes a January 3, 2020 interview New York Democratic Rep. Max Rose.  He asks two questions about the decision to assassinate Soleimani:

1. What was the intelligence undergirding this decision?  How significant was it?  How imminent was it?  
2. What is the plan for tomorrow because an Iranian response is inevitable?

I can't find this interview.  I found a link to CNN transcripts for what seemed to be this interview,  but  my browser couldn't open the page.  Here's the link.  Maybe it will be up later.  Another link to the CNN transcripts says this:

"Note: This page is continually updated as new transcripts become available. If you cannot find a specific segment, check back later."

But here's what Rep. Max Rose posted on his Congressional page that's pretty close.

“No one should mourn the loss of Qasem Soleimani who was responsible for hundreds of Americans deaths and injuries to thousands more—some of whom I know and served with. We are now faced with incredibly serious questions regarding the intelligence that led to this strike and what the Administration’s plan is for what comes next. Let me be clear: no President, regardless of party, has the authority to go to war with Iran without Congressional authorization.”

There's also an MSNBC January 3, 2020 interview with Rose.  which doesn't include the quotes from the video.



4.  Sen. Chris Van Hollen's brief comment

Then there's a cut to Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Democrat from Maryland on January 2, 2020 on Wolf Blitzer

That interview (a day earlier than Rose's) is in the CNN transcripts.  Here are the words that were in the Now Hear This clip:

"Obviously, we need to do what's necessary to protect the lives of Americans. But, unfortunately, actions this administration has taken for weeks and months now have taken a very difficult situation, and made it much worse."

5.  Trump's prediction that Obama will start a war with Iran

 In this one, Trump predicts Obama will start a war with Iran before the 2012 election because Obama doesn't know how to negotiate.  I can't find the original Youtube, but there are lots and lots of people who have put up the interview in the last few days.   A report on MSNBC on the attack on Soleimani includes part of the 2011 video in which Trump predicts that Obama will start a war with Iran to win reelection.  It starts at about 2:10 in the video. It seems to include all the video, but the first part, where he talks about Obama's inability to negotiate, doesn't have the video included.

There's another weird version of the 2011 Trump prediction here.  It was put up Jan 3, 2020 and includes a computer generated audio description.

Another recently uploaded Youtube of Trump's Obama will start war on Iran prediction as part of a medley of Trump's videos on Iran.  The exact quote from the Now Hear This video is at about 1:25.

There are also other reports of the video at Global News (Canadian) and here's FOX5NY's coverage of it. 

Of course, the purpose of fact checking is to be sure that the media aren't all jumping on the same false claims.  I haven't found the original video, but there are so many outlets - including the Fox channel in New York - and I haven't seen any denials, so I'm going to say, I'm pretty sure this is real.  In fact I think I heard this a long time ago.  But keep a skeptical mind on this last one.

On the whole, I would say that the Now Hear This video is pretty accurate.  The words appear from many sources to have been said by Trump.  The clips don't include everything Trump said - for instance he also talks about the possibility of using the military - but I don't think they take things out of context.   They don't make  him appear to have said things he didn't really say or mean.  But I would also add that in the originals Trump does talk about going to war with Iran as a possibility.  I guess if I watched Fox News, those would be the clips they are showing.


I would also note that I've mentioned before that people often accuse others of what they do, or would do, themselves.  Accusing Obama of starting a war with Iran to win an election probably was something that Trump then would have considered if he were president.  And now, he may have actually done it.  We'll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile I have a friend who left January 2 for a cruise through the Strait of Hormuz.  When I asked him why, (I tend to be understated, I was thinking WTF?!! are you thinking) he said it was the only way he could cruise through the Suez canal.  I don't think he's got internet connections but I did send him an email this morning to let me know the name of the ship - if the cruise hadn't been cancelled - so I'd know he and his wife were ok.  [UPDATE January 6, 2020:  I got an email from him yesterday.  He said the Strait of Hormuz trip is March.  They only were in Cabo yesterday.  I'll let you know if he goes in March and if he does, if the route was altered.]


I'd note finally, that I thought that I could whip this out pretty quickly, but it took a lot more work than I expected.  And I'm really hungry now.