Friday’s statement contradicts claims he made earlier in the week that
he had seen “secret” video of cash being unloaded off a plane in Iran. Presidential nominees from the two major parties are typically given access to classified information via intelligence briefings, though
his campaign said those briefings hadn’t begun yet.
“Iran provided all of that footage, the tape of taking that money off the airplane,” he told a crowd in Florida. “It’s a military tape; it’s a tape that was a perfect angle, nice and steady, nobody getting nervous because they’re gonna be shot because they’re shooting a picture of money pouring off a plane.”
The Washington Post debunked Trump’s claim, explaining that what he likely saw was publicly available
footage from January that showed Americans who had been imprisoned in Iran being released in Geneva. Trump’s communications director, Hope Hicks, confirmed the video he was talking about was the Geneva footage.
This means that Trump told his audience a half-dozen lies. The video he saw was not shot in Iran, it did not show the exchange of cash, it was not “top secret,” it was not “a military tape,” and it was not “provided by Iran.” Nor was it released to embarrass the United States.
Despite reality,
Trump repeated the erroneous claim Thursday evening. Finally, Friday morning, he admitted the video he saw was the one from Geneva.