Donald Trump Is Criticizing The Osama Bin Laden Raid Now, Which, What?
By this time, everyone knows that President Donald Trump isn't afraid to let his thoughts run wild on Twitter. However, Donald Trump's tweet about the Osama bin Laden raid might be one of his most absurd yet. Another day in 2018.
On Monday, Nov. 19, Donald Trump took to Twitter to share some... interesting thoughts on the 2011 Osama bin Laden raid that killed the infamous terrorist leader. According to Trump's tweet, the United States should have captured bin Laden "long before" they did and that President Bill Clinton "missed his shot" to capture the terrorist leader. Trump's tweet is misleading for a number of reasons. First of all, mentioning President Bill Clinton could represent yet another attempt to jab at Hillary Clinton, his former presidential opponent. Plus, it's important to note that the United States never "captured" bin Laden, since the terrorist leader died on spot during the raid (and that the Sept. 11, 2001 attack orchestrated by Al Qaeda occurred well after President Clinton left office in January 2001). Basically, it's all just very confusing. Elite Daily reached out to the White House for comment about Trump's tweet about the raid, but did not hear back in time for publication.
Trump's tweet came just a few hours after he appeared on Fox News on Sunday, Nov. 19. That night, Trump sat down with host Chris Wallace to discuss a number of topics, but for some reason brought up the 2011 raid on bin Laden. Even though Trump may not have subtly plugged his book while speaking to Wallace, the president did criticize now-retired Admiral Bill McRaven, who commanded the operation, by calling him a "Hillary Clinton-backer."
Despite all that was accomplished in the raid, clearly Trump isn't impressed by the 2011 operation. Judging from his tweet, it looks like he thinks he may have done a better job under the circumstances.
Even though Trump may claim that McRaven is a "Hillary Clinton supporter," there's actually little to no evidence to suggest that's true. According to CNN, McRaven never publicly supported Trump or Clinton during the 2016 presidential election. However, McRaven has publicly criticized Trump's actions towards the media, and has called him the "greatest threat to democracy" currently. McRaven also spoke out against the Trump administration rescinding former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance back in August. So, once McRaven caught wind of Trump's claims that he supports Clinton, McRaven rebuked the statement to CNN on Nov. 18, but stood by his criticism of the president. McRaven said,
I did not back Hillary Clinton or anyone else. I am a fan of President Obama and President George W. Bush, both of whom I worked for. I admire all presidents, regardless of their political party, who uphold the dignity of the office and who use that office to bring the nation together in challenging times. "I stand by my comment that the President's attack on the media is the greatest threat to our democracy in my lifetime. When you undermine the people's right to a free press and freedom of speech and expression, then you threaten the Constitution and all for which it stands.
Elite Daily reached out to the White House for comment on McRaven's statement but did not immediately hear back.
This isn't the first time that Trump's tweets have been fact-checked by numerous sources. In fact, nonprofit organization Factcheck.org has dedicated an entire section solely fact checking Trump's statements, which includes his claim that Democrats illegally voted multiple times during the 2018 midterms as well as him saying that he cannot release his infamous tax returns because they're "under audit."
This is 2018, and we're saving those receipts Trump. If I were you, I'd think before I tweet.
