In what has emerged as the latest scandal involving Donald Trump, the
presidential candidate on Friday retracted a statement that he had seen
a video on TV of a plane carrying $400 million in cash to Iran, money
which as the WSJ reported earlier this week was allegedly made as a
ransom payment to free 4 US hostages held by Iran. The statement was a
rare reversal of comments he made on the campaign trail earlier this
week.
“The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran!” Trump tweeted.
Earlier in the week Trump had gone into detail about seeing footage of the money in responding to the news that the U.S. had transferred $400 million to Iran in January at the same time that American hostages were being released from the country. “I’ll never forget the scene this morning,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in Florida Wednesday. “And remember this. Iran — I don’t think you’ve heard this anywhere but here — Iran provided all of that footage, the tape, of taking that money off that airplane, right?
“Now here’s the amazing thing: over there, where that plane landed — top secret, they don’t have a lot of paparazzi. You know, the paparazzi doesn’t do so well over there, right?” he said. “And they have a perfect tape done by obviously a government camera and the tape is of the people taking the money of the plane, right? That means that in order to embarrass us further, Iran sends us the tapes, right? It’s a military tape. It was a tape that was a perfect angle — nice and steady. Nobody getting nervous because they’re going to be shot because they’re shooting a picture of money pouring off a plane,” he said.
However, as the Washington Examiner notes, after those comments, the Trump campaign told The Washington Post that the tape Mr. Trump had seen was b-roll footage that’s been labeled as American hostages landing in Geneva in January after being released from prison. But Mr. Trump said again Thursday in Maine that he guessed the footage was of the money transfer.
“The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran!” Trump tweeted.
Earlier in the week Trump had gone into detail about seeing footage of the money in responding to the news that the U.S. had transferred $400 million to Iran in January at the same time that American hostages were being released from the country. “I’ll never forget the scene this morning,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in Florida Wednesday. “And remember this. Iran — I don’t think you’ve heard this anywhere but here — Iran provided all of that footage, the tape, of taking that money off that airplane, right?
“Now here’s the amazing thing: over there, where that plane landed — top secret, they don’t have a lot of paparazzi. You know, the paparazzi doesn’t do so well over there, right?” he said. “And they have a perfect tape done by obviously a government camera and the tape is of the people taking the money of the plane, right? That means that in order to embarrass us further, Iran sends us the tapes, right? It’s a military tape. It was a tape that was a perfect angle — nice and steady. Nobody getting nervous because they’re going to be shot because they’re shooting a picture of money pouring off a plane,” he said.
However, as the Washington Examiner notes, after those comments, the Trump campaign told The Washington Post that the tape Mr. Trump had seen was b-roll footage that’s been labeled as American hostages landing in Geneva in January after being released from prison. But Mr. Trump said again Thursday in Maine that he guessed the footage was of the money transfer.
