Trump forced to walk back ridiculous falsehood about Obama (about contacting service members KIA) [View all]

[fleur-de-lisa]

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-forced-walk-back-ridiculous-falsehood-about-obama

But then something interesting happened: the president was fact-checked in real-time, and Trump was forced to backpedal.

Trump’s allegation that Obama hadn’t made calls was the subject of another question later in the news conference. “How can you make that claim?” NBC News’s Peter Alexander asked about Trump’s phone-call assertion.

The president admitted that Obama may very well have made calls after all.

“I don’t know if he did. No no no. I was told that he didn’t often,” Trump replied. “A lot of presidents don’t; they write letters. I do a combination of both. Sometimes – it’s a very difficult thing to do, but I do a combination of both. President Obama I think probably did sometimes and maybe sometimes he didn’t. I don’t know. That’s what I was told. All I can do is ask my generals. Other presidents did not call. They’d write letters. And some presidents didn’t do anything. But I like, I like the combination of – I like, when I can, the combination of a call and also a letter.”

Notice the shifts. First, Obama didn’t call the families, then Obama didn’t call them “often.” Initially, Trump said he had the facts about what previous presidents did, then Trump said he didn’t have the facts and it’s the generals’ fault if he claims were wrong.