Trump Claims Clinton Invented a Statement He Made to the Debate Moderator

Trump denied saying that Japan should get nuclear weapons. But he made that claim to Chris Wallace in April.

David Goldman/AP

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When Hillary Clinton noted during Wednesday night’s presidential debate that Donald Trump had said countries like Japan should get nuclear weapons to defend themselves, Trump called her a “liar” and said she was misquoting him.

“There’s no quote,” Trump said. “You’re not going to find a quote from me.”

It turns out Trump was the one lying, and he’d said exactly what Clinton claimed. Not only that, Trump’s comments endorsing nuclear weapons for other countries came during an interview with the debate moderator, Fox News’ Chris Wallace.

During an interview back in April, Trump told Wallace, “So, North Korea has nukes. Japan has a problem with that. I mean, they have a big problem with that. Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea.”

Wallace clarified. “With nukes?” he asked.

“Including with nukes, yes, including with nukes,” Trump said.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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