Tonight is the first-ever “Commander in Chief Forum,” a chance for the presidential candidates to show off their knowledge of things military:
During this one-hour forum, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be on stage back-to-back taking questions on national security, military affairs and veterans issues from NBC News and an audience comprised mainly of military veterans and active service members.
You can watch on television on MSNBC and probably on NBC (depending on your television market). It will stream live at MSNBC.
Daily Kos is liveblogging the proceedings, and it is Donald Trump’s turn.
The burning question: Will Matt Lauer open by questioning Trump’s judgement on bribing Florida’s AG? Stay tuned.
So, Donald, what do you think about Hillary's emails?
Let’s see if the Trumpanzee can answer any question without three non-sequiturs.
Trump has done very well with China—yeah, outsourcing manufacture of Trump-brand products there has made him some money.
So he’ll keep personal attacks to a minimum. Right. Launching into what experience he has in his life to be CinC. Trump watched Hillary, so he uses Lauer’s word “judgement.” Now giving one of his answers on Iraq, the one where he was opposed to the war.
Trump says you can tell he was always against the war, but pointing to an interview that came after the start of the war.
(And does Lauer follow up on the Iraq war lie? Bwahahahaha.)
Sept. 11, 2002: Howard Stern asks Trump if he supports invading Iraq. Trump answers: “Yeah, I guess so. You know, I wish it was, I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
Does Trump know more than the generals? “We need change, Matt. We have to have it and we have to have it fast.” That’s convincing.
Uh … WHAT?
"The people who arranged the trip in Mexico have been forced out of government. ThatâÂÂs how well we did.â â Donald Trump— Matt Viser (@mviser) September 8, 2016
"The people who arranged the trip in Mexico have been forced out of government. ThatâÂÂs how well we did.â â Donald Trump
First question from audience. “You’ve claimed to have a secret plan to defeat ISIS…. Assuming we do defeat ISIS, what’s your plan for the region to make sure they don’t come back.” Trump blathering about Iraq and how Obama took everybody out and ISIS was formed. So there’s that old Obama and Hillary are responsible for ISIS again.
Yeah, we’re not getting any idea at all about a plan for stabilizing the region, beyond “take the oil.” And Lauer lets it slide. Of course.
Now Trump with 4th whopper on how and why ISIS formed--and now taking all the oil out of Iraq. We deserved "spoils." Audience not laughing.— Greg Mitchell (@GregMitch) September 8, 2016
Now Trump with 4th whopper on how and why ISIS formed--and now taking all the oil out of Iraq. We deserved "spoils." Audience not laughing.
Trump claims people don’t know there’s a lot of oil in Iraq. That is going to surprise a lot of people who know there’s a lot of oil in Iraq.
Trump complains that President Obama took all the troops out of Iraq and now Iran will take over the country. Apparently he is unaware that there are currently thousands of American troops in Iraq. Oh, and we should have taken the oil. How? By leaving “certain people” there to get it.
I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to have a foreign policy “forum” where no knowledge of foreign policy or current events was required, but here we are.
“Keep the oil” is also known as “War of Conquest.”
What Trump is saying is we don’t leave. Ever.
Make America great again! It’s his plan. Maybe he’ll like the generals’ plan, so he’d go with that, but he’ll get new generals and they’ll be great and he can’t reveal his plan now because he might win and then they’ll know his plan.
He's going to fire the generals and replace them with the ones who endorsed him. Great plan!
OK, if Lauer can actually make him spill information from his classified briefing, maybe he’s redeemable. Probably not. Trump didn’t learn anything in his briefing, except Obama ignored their recommendations. Sure, I believe that.
Remember how painful it was watching George W. Bush speaking publicly for eight years? Just on a speaking and thinking level? Betcha didn’t think it could get worse. But it can. It can.
He knows that Barack Obama didn't follow military intelligence because "he's pretty good with body language," Well, that's definitive.
Seems like Trump has already been talking for twice as long as Clinton.
Matt Lauer feels he has to remind Trump *twice* not to divulge classified details from his national security briefings. Classic.
For the record, Trump is wrong (Surprise!): Iraq is not No. 1 on oil reserves. It's No. 5.
Asked how he’ll be diplomatic, and he’s talking about the damned stairs on the plane in China for Obama. “I’ll have a very good relationship with Putin.” I don’t think that’s quite the answer that anyone in the room wanted to hear. And by the way, Lauer is just letting him babble.
New thread here.