Thread: Trump's Sept. 11 Comments Draw Ire of Other Candidates

Trump's Sept. 11 Comments Draw Ire of Other Candidates

by Elizabeth Chuck
3:46

Presidential candidate Donald Trump set off another political firestorm Friday after implying that President George W. Bush was to blame for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, drawing the ire of his Republican rivals.

""When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time," Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

The comment reignited a long-standing Twitter feud with the 43rd president's brother Jeb Bush, who called Trump "pathetic."

How pathetic for @realdonaldtrump to criticize the president for 9/11. We were attacked & my brother kept us safe.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 16, 2015

"We were attacked & my brother kept us safe," Jeb Bush tweeted. Earlier in the day, he had criticized Trump on Twitter for failing to give specifics about his presidential platform.

Related: Bush Defends Brother Against Donald Trump's 9/11 Charges

"No @JebBush, you're pathetic for saying nothing happened during your brother's term when the World Trade Center was attacked and came down," Trump fired back.

.@JebBush, like it or not, our country needs more energy and spirit than you can provide! #MakeAmericaGreatAgain
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2015

The two candidates frequently spar. Last month, Bush said of Trump, ""I think I'm the number one beneficiary of the Donald's insults."
Image: Donald Trump
Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump attends a rally in Richmond, Virginia, on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015. Steve Helber / AP

Later Friday, fellow 2016 contender Ben Carson also weighed in during a campaign stop in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.

"I think it's ridiculous to suggest [Bush] was responsible for that," he said, but he gave the fiery billionaire the benefit of the doubt, adding he'd be "surprised" if Trump was blaming Bush for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Related: Ben Carson: 'Ridiculous' to Suggest Bush Bears Blame for 9/11

Bloomberg TV anchor Stephanie Ruhle challenged Trump during the interview, interjecting, "Hold on, you can't blame George Bush for that." But Trump maintained his position.

"He was president, OK? Don't blame him or don't blame him, but he was president. The World Trade Center came down during his reign," he responded.

This is far from the first time Trump has offered harsh words on the Bush presidency. Earlier this month, he called Bush a "disaster" in an interview with FOX News.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016...idates-n446451

Republican candidates who take "ire" with Trump simple fact that the World Trade Centers came down during Bush's reign aren't being honest or truthful. Media pundits trying to sensationalize a simple fact as "blame" of some type are just continuing to display their own dishonest journalism. Four hijacked planes, not one stopped, flown and commandeered by visa holders, most of which had expired, boarded planes with expired visas, they flew planes for considerable periods of time with no involvement or contact by NORAD, all while Bush is in a 3 graders room reading a book to them.

Trump didn't lay blame, only responsibility. But I will lay blame. These people should have never been in our country to begin with which because they were, is Bill Clinton's fault if his administration let them in, those with expired visas should have been deported already, the fact that they weren't is George W Bush's fault, NORAD should have already been on the planes once they were hijacked doing what it's paid to do, the fact that they weren't and didn't do anything is George W Bush's fault. NORAD was waiting for orders from the President, who was busy reading to third graders in some school in Florida. which is Bush's fault and possibly Jeb's as well, since I imagine he was instrumental in setting up this stupid charade.

By Sopan Deb CBS News October 17, 2015, 9:38 AM
Trump, Bush spat ramps up over 9/11 comments

Last Updated Oct 17, 2015 10:19 AM EDT

The feud between GOP frontrunner Donald Trump and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush that erupted again on Friday did not come up in Trump's rally in Massachusetts Friday evening, but it did pick up afterwards over social media.

Trump led a rally on Friday evening in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, roughly a 45-minute drive from Boston. He did not address comments he had made in an interview with Bloomberg earlier in the day, in which he had said,"When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time."

Bush had responded by calling Trump "pathetic" over Twitter and said that his brother had "kept us safe."

After the event, Trump ignored questions from reporters, but that did not stop him from responding on Twitter later.

Danny Diaz, Jeb Bush's campaign manager, also weighed in.

In Massachusetts, Trump gave three separate speeches. The first speech was in front of a gymnasium holding nearly 1,000. Then, he walked across the hallway to an overflow room an addressed a cafeteria with almost 800 more supporters.

His fervent crowds showed up even in a traditionally Democratic state. His comments today didn't seem to dampen the enthusiasm.

"It doesn't bother me because I think the Bushes have a very different way of approaching politics," said Diane Boulanger-Prescott, of Haverhill, Massachusetts. "Back in Bush 41's day, it was more diplomacy. He was a diplomat. Then you graduated to George W. There's a lot of feeling that we should not have got in that war. I think that having Jeb out there is just too much. I know he was a good governor. Even his mother Barbara Bush agrees."

Boulanger-Prescott previously volunteered for both Bush's who became president, as well as former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential bid.

After two indoor speeches, Trump walked outside and delivered a final speech to an outside crowd that a fire marshal said was in the thousands.

Ron Villareale, a 69-year-old Brooklyn native who used to work in construction, dismissed Trump's comments and said he would vote for him.

"He's a New York guy. Okay? I get it," Villareale said. "He's not scripted. No one is coming up with the words that are coming out of his mouth. This is an honest response. It's not always perfect. In a normal conversation it never will always be perfect."

Paul Cote, a 55-year-old who drove from Londonberry, New Hampshire to see the speech, offered a different explanation for Trump's comments.

"I think sometimes he may speak and doesn't really think," Cote said. "H doesn't think about maybe the ramifications of what he's saying. Do I agree with everything he says? You know what? I can't find a candidate I agree with everything they do."

Cote says he will vote for Trump.

"I think it's time for a businessman as opposed to a politician to be at the White House."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-bu...-911-comments/

So there is no "ire", no one cares, everyone is still voting for Trump. Sorry Bloomberg, CNN and Fox .... we all still love Trump and guess what? Trump is right. "The World Trade Center came down during George Bush's reign."

Trump triples down on George W. Bush’s responsibility for 9/11

By Karoun Demirjian October 18 at 6:00 AM

Donald Trump says he doesn’t flat out blame former president George W. Bush that the Sept. 11 terror attacks happened on his watch. But he can think of three reasons why one could hold Bush responsible.

And, he might add, they are three things a President Trump would do very differently.

“You always have to look to the person at the top,” Trump said Saturday in a telephone interview. “Do I blame George Bush? I only say that he was the president at the time, and you know, you could say the buck stops here.”

So why might one consider Bush responsible?

No. 1: Bush’s immigration policy. “We had very weak immigration laws,” Trump said, adding that perhaps if Bush had had a Trump-style immigration policy, replete with “the strong laws that I’m wanting, these terrorists wouldn’t have been in the country.”

No. 2: People knew that the FBI, the National Security Council, and the CIA weren’t sharing information about potential threats. “They were not talking to each other,” Trump said. “If I’m president, I want to have my three most important agencies talking to each other and coordinating with each other.”

And No. 3: George Tenet, Bush’s director of central intelligence, “knew in advance that there would be an attack, and he said that.”

“I don’t blame anybody,” Trump continued, after listing those points. “But it’s possible,” he continued, that had the administration had stronger policy on those points, “perhaps something could have been done that was obviously better than the worst attack ever perpetrated on the United States.”

Trump, the real estate mogul, and former Florida governor Jeb Bush have been hurling vitriol at each other since Friday, after Trump pointed out during a Bloomberg News interview that “the World Trade Center came down during [former president Bush’s] reign.”

Jeb Bush retorted on Twitter, calling Trump’s comments “pathetic” and repeating an argument he used during the most recent Republican debate: that his brother “kept us safe.”

Trump returned fire on Twitter, adding that he was just being polite when the subject came up for discussion at the debate. Like it or not, he said, Bush was in the White House when the Twin Towers came down.

“I just didn’t want to embarrass him,” Trump said, insisting that Jeb Bush’s “statement was wrong.”

According to a recent YouGov/Huffington Post poll taken in the days after the last Republican debate, more than 80 percent of Republicans believe George W. Bush did either a “good” or “excellent” job “keeping the U.S. safe while president.”

But even considering Bush’s tenure solely after 9/11, Trump can’t say he agrees.

“I’m not sure that anybody can answer that question. Because you don’t know,” Trump said — effectively making the point that it’s difficult to prove a negative. “Was it something we did? Was it policy that kept it? All I know is that the Twin Towers came down, and I was there.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ility-for-911/

Trump commented that it happened on Bush's watch, it did. No other accusations were made. In my opinion, the other candidates are acting like dogs fighting over table scraps.

Originally Posted by Newmexican

Trump commented that it happened on Bush's watch, it did. No other accusations were made. In my opinion, the other candidates are acting like dogs fighting over table scraps.

That's exactly right. And Jeb is going to regret making a mountain out of Trump's comment when he was asked the question to which he gave that answer. Trump didn't start it, the female interviewer on Bloomberg started it and she started it because her question was in response to what? A punch on Trump by Jeb about Jeb's opinion that Trump wouldn't be a good military leader. Like Trump says, he's a counter-puncher. Trump did go to Military School and excelled. He did get college deferments but then enlisted or was drafted but failed the physical due to some problem with his heels, so he couldn't serve. Now we have Jeb .... what did Jeb do? Did he go to Military School? Nope. Has he ever served in the US military? Nope. Why was our Commander in Chief in Sarasota, Florida reading to 3rd graders on 9-11 instead of in his office in DC attending to business and at the ready in the event of a terror attack, which the CIA had predicted?

Well, Jeb was Governor of Florida and obviously thought it would be "cool" to have his brother abandon his duties for the country to come down to Florida and read to some kids for a big Education PR Event.

Wait until the debates, I hope this comes up and Trump asks Jeb why was your brother in Sarasota, Florida reading to 3rd graders instead of at his Office where he should have been? Why weren't you reading to the 3rd graders instead of the President, after all you WERE Governor of Florida at the time?

By the time this is all over, the world will be blaming JEB for 9/11.

Back home, we were always raised to never start a fight you can't finish, a lesson the Bush Boys were never taught, didn't learn or have chosen to ignore.

Check out this thread in Other Topics.
http://www.alipac.us/f19/hitlery-cin...ar-2-a-324558/

by Julia Hahn
18 Oct 2015
Washington D.C.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s campaign is furious with 2016 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump over Trump’s comments that the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened on Bush’s brother former President George W. Bush’s watch. But a review of the basic facts of the situation—and Jeb Bush’s own writings—reveals that even the Bushes admit that “leaky” immigration enforcement was a major driving factor in leading to the terrorist attacks.

While Trump has attacked Bush before—describing the candidate as “low energy”—this line of questioning represents a new level in the war as Trump soars over Bush in recent polling, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has essentially replaced Bush as the establishment frontrunner. The latest Trump-Bush bout began in the most recent debate.

In the CNN Republican presidential debate, Trump blamed George W. Bush’s unsuccessful presidency for giving us President Obama, prompting an immediate response from Jeb Bush.

TRUMP: “Your brother – and your brother’s administration gave us Barack Obama, because it was such a disaster, those last three months, that Abraham Lincoln couldn’t have been elected.”

BUSH: “You know what? As it relates to my brother, there’s one thing I know for sure. He kept us safe. I don’t know if you remember…”

This exchange sparked a war of words between the two campaigns—culminating in Trump’s declaration that if he were president and were able to enact his immigration policies, 9/11 would not have happened under his watch.

On Fox News Sunday, Trump said:

Look, look, Jeb said, “We were safe with my brother, we were safe.” Well the World Trade Center just fell down. Now am I trying to blame him? I’m not blaming anybody. But the World Trade Center came down. So when he said we were safe, that’s not safe. We lost 3,000 people, it was one of the greatest—probably the greatest catastrophe ever in this country… I am extremely, extremely tough on illegal immigration. I am extremely tough on people coming into this country. I believe if I were running things, I doubt those—I doubt those people would have been in the country. So there is a good chance that those people would not have been in our country With that being said, I’m not blaming George Bush, but I don’t want Jeb Bush to say, “My brother kept us safe,” because September 11th was one of the worst days in the history of this country.

The Bush campaign was quick to attack Trump in response, declaring that “Across the spectrum of foreign policy, Mr. Trump talks about things as though he’s still on ‘The Apprentice’… My brother responded to a crisis, and he did it as you would hope a president would do. He united the country, he organized our country and he kept us safe.”

However, a review Jeb Bush’s 2013 book Immigration Wars reveals that Jeb Bush himself agreed with Trump’s argument and admitted that our “leaky” immigration policy was responsible for the attack.

Bush wrote:

In addition to the Mexican drug cartels, the fact that several of the 9/11 terrorists entered the country lawfully under a leaky immigration has heightened national security concerns—so much so that immigration enforcement has been placed under the Department of Homeland Security.

Indeed, all of the the nineteen September 11th hijackers were voluntarily imported into the country on visas issued to them by our federal government. Almost all of the visas were issued in the predominantly Muslim country of Saudi Arabia. Four of the September 11th hijackers—Zacarias Moussaoui, Satam al Suqami, Nawaf al Hamzi, and Hani Hanjour—were visa overstays.

In a blockbuster 2002 report, National Review’s Joel Mowbray acquired the visa applications of 15 of the 19 hijackers and exposed how every single one of their applications should have been flatly rejected.

Mowbray wrote:

Brothers Wail and Waleed al-Shehri applied together for travel visas on October 24, 2000. Wail claimed his occupation was “teater,” while his brother wrote “student.” Both listed the name and address of his respective employer or school as simply “South City.” Each also declared a U.S. destination of “Wasantwn.” But what should have further raised a consular officer’s eyebrows is the fact that a student and his nominally employed brother were going to go on a four-to-six-month vacation, paid for by Wail’s “teater” salary, which he presumably would be foregoing while in the United States. Even assuming very frugal accommodations, such a trip for two people would run north of $15,000, yet there is no indication that the consular officer even attempted to determine that Wail in fact had the financial means to fund the planned excursion. They appear to have received their visas the same day they applied.

ABC News covered Mowbray’s report:

Abdulaziz Alomari claimed to be a student but didn’t name a school; claimed to be married but didn’t name a spouse; under nationality and gender, he didn’t list anything.

Visa approved.

Three months later, Alomari followed his friend Mohamed Atta through airport security… heading for the World Trade Center.

Khalid Al Mihdhar, who helped crash the plane into the Pentagon, simply listed “Hotel” as his U.S. destination — no name, no city, no state — but no problem getting a visa.

“They were handing these things out gift-wrapped with ribbons on top,” Mowbray said. “[Al-Qaeda operatives] didn’t have to beat the system, the system was rigged in their favor from the get-go.”

By definition, had the visas been rejected or had the visa-overstays been deported, September 11th would not have happened.

Interestingly, even though George W. Bush remained in office for more than six years after the attack, millions of visa overstays were still not deported. In fact, the United States continues to churn out hundreds of thousands of visas to Muslim immigrants, some of whom have gone on to commit terror attacks in the United States.

As Center for Immigration Studies’ Executive Director Mark Krikorian wrote earlier this year, “This view, that foreign visa applicants rather than the American people are to be served, continues; the number of student visas issued to Saudis, for instance, is up more than 500 percent from 9/11.”

The Republican presidential candidates have taken starkly different positions on the issue of Muslim immigration.

For instance, while Donald Trump has repeatedly articulated a strong stance against increasing the number of Muslim immigrants voluntarily admitted into the country, Marco Rubio has adopted an entirely different position on the matter.

Although four of the 9/11 hijackers were visa overstays, Sen. Rubio authored legislation that would have legalized visa overstays and would have made them American citizens. At the same time, Rubio voted against a visa tracking system offered by his Republican colleague Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), which sought to prevent future foreign nationals from illegally overstaying their visas.

Rubio has also expressed support for expanding the resettlement of Muslim immigrants—on top of the annual 280,000 Muslim migrants the United States admits annually, which includes 100,000 Muslim immigrants who are brought in on green cards and will eventually be able to bring in their family members and vote in U.S. elections.

Moreover, while Trump has declared that he would be cautious about the Muslim migrants that are admitted into the United States on temporary visas, Rubio has introduced legislation that would substantially boost temporary visas to some of the most terror-prone regions of the world. Rubio’s legislation, however, does not include any corresponding enforcement measures to track foreigners brought into the country on temporary visas.

A review of recent terror activity—provided by the Senate Immigration Subcommittee—reveals that a number of attacks have been committed by Muslim immigrants admitted entry to the United States on visas.

A refugee voluntarily admitted from Uzbekistan and “living in Idaho was arrested and charged with providing support to a terrorist organization, in the form of teaching terror recruits how to build bombs.”

A college student voluntarily admitted from Somalia, “who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, attempted to blow up a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Oregon.”

An immigrant voluntarily admitted from Kazakhstan “with lawful permanent resident status conspired to purchase a machine gun to shoot FBI and other law enforcement agents if they prevented him from traveling to Syria to join ISIS.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...ation-led-911/

State Dept. Lapses Aided 9/11 Hijackers

(according to comments this article was 2 months ago, but no date or author shown, click on link below for comments)

A new report accuses the State Department of staggering lapses in its visa program that gave Sept. 11 hijackers entry into the United States.

The political journal National Review obtained the visa applications for 15 of the 19 hijackers — and evidence that all of them should have been denied entry to the country.

Almost all of the hijacker's visas were issued in Saudi Arabia, at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh or the U.S. Consulate in Jedda. Terrorist ties aside, the applications themselves should have raised red flags, say experts. The forms are incomplete and often incomprehensible — yet that didn't stop any of the 15 terrorists for whom the visa applications were obtained from coming to the United States.

The only alleged would-be hijacker who failed to get a visa was Ramzi Binalshibh, who was denied entrance to the United States repeatedly.

"This is a systemic problem," said Nikolai Wenzel, a former U.S. consular officer. "It's a problem of sloppiness, it's a problem of negligence which I would call criminal negligence because obviously, having reviewed all these applications, there is a pattern here."

The pattern? None of the 15 applications reviewed was filled out properly.

Brothers Wail and Waleed al Shehri applied together in October 2000. Under "occupation" Wail wrote "teater;" brother Waleed claimed "student." The name and address of alleged employer and school was listed as "South City," and the questionable U.S. destination named as "Wasantwn."

Visas approved.

Abdulaziz Alomari claimed to be a student but didn't name a school; claimed to be married but didn't name a spouse; under nationality and gender, he didn't list anything.

Visa approved.

Three months later, Alomari followed his friend Mohamed Atta through airport security … heading for the World Trade Center.

Khalid Al Mihdhar, who helped crash the plane into the Pentagon, simply listed "Hotel" as his U.S. destination — no name, no city, no state — but no problem getting a visa.

Just One Had a Slight Delay

Hani Hanjour, who also was on the plane that hit the Pentagon, had only a slight delay in acquiring his visa. A consulate employee flagged Hanjour's first application, noting that Hanjour wanted to "visit" for three years, although the legal limit is two. When Hanjour returned two weeks later, he simply changed the form to read "one year".

Visa approved.

"They were handing these things out gift-wrapped with ribbons on top," said Joel Mowbray, contributing editor of the National Review.

Mowbray, who obtained the visas, said he was shocked by what he saw. "I mean, I really was expecting al Qaeda to have trained their operatives well, to beat the system," he said. "They didn't have to beat the system, the system was rigged in their favor from the get-go."

The State Department insists that employees did nothing wrong — that the questions raised about the applications amount to Monday morning quarterbacking, and that extensive screening procedures have now been implemented to improve the process.

The State Department would not allow interviews with current consular affairs employees.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130051