Donald Trump yadda yaddas his past support for the Iraq war: 'Blah, blah, blah, yes, I guess'

Trump speaks on his involvement with war in Iraq.
(Image credit: Mark Lyons/Getty Images)

Donald Trump downplayed evidence of his early support for the war in Iraq — an invasion he has insisted throughout his campaign that he opposed from the get-go — when confronted by Fox News' Bret Baier on Thursday evening.

After Trump mentioned his criticism of the war, Baier pointed out that during an interview with Howard Stern in 2002, Trump answered, "Yeah, I guess" when asked whether he backed the invasion. Trump's account to Baier was a little different: "I'm talking to Howard Stern, weeks before, the first time anybody had ever asked," he said, "and don't forget, I was a civilian. The first time anyone ever asked me about the war, about should we go in, because it was a question, are we going in? And I said very weakly, well, blah, blah, blah, yes, I guess."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.