August 5, 2016

Donald Trump Admits He Never Watched That “Top Secret” Iran Video

Surprise! The footage does not exist.


Speaking at a campaign rally in Daytona, Florida on Wednesday, Donald Trump spoke in length about having watched a video that allegedly showed Iranian officials “pouring” $400 million off of a plane on the same day Tehran released four American prisoners back in January.

His remarks, which immediately sparked concern that the Republican nominee was divulging classified information, aligned with a report that the US had sent $400 million to Iran on the same day that it freed the American prisoners, a payment critics have decried as ransom. Both U.S. officials and Trump’s own campaign staff were quick to dismiss Trump’s assertion that any such video even existed. Nevertheless, the real estate magnate continued repeating his claim.

But by Friday, Trump appeared to change his story. He tweeted the following mea culpa:

And there you have it—Trump did something truly shocking on Friday: admit he was flat out wrong.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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