Lt. General Michael Flynn just lied about President Obama and Hillary Clinton pursuing a strategy of “coddling and displays of empathy toward terrorists.” Hillary Clinton was in the room as Secretary of State when they decided to kill Osama Bin Laden. She was Senator from New York during 9/11. And she is the only candidate in this race that has given us a real plan on how to fight ISIS. We know that Hillary Clinton has no plans of coddling or displaying empathy toward terrorists, unlike Trump who (as far as we can tell) has no plans at all.
LIE: Lt. General Michael Flynn: President Obama and Hillary Clinton pursued a strategy of “coddling and displays of empathy toward terrorists”
Lt. General Michael Flynn: “Coddling and displays of empathy toward terrorists is not a strategy for defeating these murderers as Obama and Hillary Clinton would like us to believe.” “Let me be clear – coddling and displays of empathy toward terrorists is not a strategy for defeating these murderers as Obama and Hillary Clinton would like us to believe. And releasing terrorists will not end this war; on the contrary, it simply emboldens the terrorists and prolongs war. Under Barack Obama, we have no coherent strategy to protect our citizens, and under Hillary Clinton, it will be more of the same.” [Politico, 7/18/16]
THE TRUTH: Donald Trump, not President Obama or Hillary Clinton, is the one projecting weakness toward ISIS:
President Barack Obama pursued a strategy to “degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy.” “Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy. First, we will conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists. Working with the Iraqi government, we will expand our efforts beyond protecting our own people and humanitarian missions, so that we’re hitting ISIL targets as Iraqi forces go on offense. Moreover, I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are. That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency: If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.” [President Obama, White House, 9/10/14]
Hillary Clinton has proposed a strategy to “defeat ISIS in Syria, Iraq and across the Middle East… disrupt and dismantle the growing terrorist infrastructure… harden our defenses and those of our allies.” “But we have learned that we can score victories over terrorist leaders and networks, only to face metastasizing threats down the road, so we also have to play and win the long game. We should pursue a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy, one that embeds our mission against ISIS within a broader struggle against radical jihadism that is bigger than any one group, whether it’s Al Qaida or ISIS or some other network. An immediate war against an urgent enemy and a generational struggle against an ideology with deep roots will not be easily torn out. It will require sustained commitment in every pillar of American power. This is a worldwide fight, and American must lead it. Our strategy should have three main elements. One, defeat ISIS in Syria, Iraq and across the Middle East; two, disrupt and dismantle the growing terrorist infrastructure that facilitates the flow of fighters, financing arms and propaganda around the world; three, harden our defenses and those of our allies against external and homegrown threats.” [Hillary Clinton, Speech on Fighting ISIS, 11/19/15]
Donald Trump is yet to propose a comprehensive strategy to defeat ISIS. “Donald Trump said that he would be open to using NATO forces to fight ISIS despite blasting the alliance in the past as ‘obsolete,’ he told ABC News’ Tom Llamas Thursday. ‘I like the idea of using NATO and also neighbors that aren’t in NATO and take them out. You gotta take them out,’ Trump said ahead of a campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire. However, Trump has been critical of NATO in the past, calling it ‘obsolete’ and ‘expensive’ in an interview on ‘This Week’ in March. ‘It’s going to have to be either readjusted to take care of terrorism or we’re going to have to set up a new — a new coalition, a new group of countries to handle terrorism because terrorism is out of control,’ Trump said of NATO at the time. In the interview with Llamas, Trump acknowledged that he has not released the details of his plan to defeat ISIS because ‘everybody’s watching.’ ‘I don’t like giving away like, ‘We’re gonna hit them here. We’re gonna hit them there.’ I like to keep it quiet,’ Trump said, adding, ‘We’re going to hit them very hard, it’s very true, it’s very possible that we should use NATO.’” [ABC News, 6/30/16]