Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday termed Barack Obama “the founder of ISIS,” taking his previous accusation that the President was a sympathiser of the Islamic State terror group to a new depth.
“In many respects, you know, they honour President Obama,” Mr. Trump told a rally in Florida. “He’s the founder of ISIS. He’s the founder of ISIS. He’s the founder. He founded ISIS… I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.”
Mr. Trump also used the President’s full name in his speech while referring to the crisis in Crimea —“Barack Hussein Obama” — in a clear attempt to insinuate that he is a Muslim. Mr. Trump has repeatedly suggested that Mr. Obama is a Muslim and he was not born in the U.S. After the Orlando terror attack in June this year, Mr. Trump had said of Mr. Obama: “He doesn’t get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands.”
Attacking Clinton
On earlier occasions the Republican candidate had accused Ms. Clinton of being the founder of IS, referring to her support for the wars in West Asia and her role as the Secretary of State. Ms. Clinton, in turn, has stated the IS was using Mr. Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric for its recruitment propaganda.
Mr. Trump also launched a fresh broadside against the media for what he thought was a distortion of his statement earlier this week in which he called on gun owners to do something to stop Ms. Clinton from winning the presidency. His supporters chanted “lock them up” when the candidate spoke about the media.
Meanwhile, a freshly revealed e-mail exchange between her staff and Bill Clinton’s staff when she was Secretary of State has brought fresh embarrassment for Ms. Clinton.
E-mail embarrassment
In the e-mails, Mr. Clinton’s staff is seeking a meeting with a senior State Department official, for a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire who contributed about $1-5 million to the Clinton Foundation.
Gilbert Chagoury, for whom Bill Clinton’s office lobbied, was a confidante of former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. In a 2009 e-mail, a Bill Clinton aide requests the staff of Ms. Clinton to connect Mr. Chagoury with the State Department’s “substance person” on Lebanon.
“We need Gilbert Chagoury to speak to the substance person re Lebanon,” an aide wrote. “As you know, he’s a key guy there and to us and is loved in Lebanon. Very imp.” “It's jeff feltman,” Ms. Clinton’s office responded, referring to Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon at the time. “I’m sure he knows him. I’ll talk to jeff.”
