Rachel Maddow Just Demolished Trump’s Main Rationale For Sending More Troops To Afghanistan

Rachel Maddow demolished Donald Trump’s main rationale for sending more troops into Afghanistan on Monday night, using the president’s own words against him just after he wrapped up his primetime address to the nation.

Trump said during his address that President Obama’s decision to withdraw from Iraq in a “hasty” way is what led him to increase the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, and Maddow was quick to point out the president’s hypocrisy.

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Tonight the president in his remarks saying that he shares Americans’ frustration with the length of the war. He said his original instinct was to pull out. But he now wanted to spend this evening talking about what he views as the unacceptable consequences of a withdrawal. He drew as a parallel, as an analogy, the Iraq war, calling President Obama’s decision to wind down the Iraq war, at least for a time, he called that a hasty decision and a mistaken decision. Should be noted that when President Obama made that decision, Donald Trump – then a private citizen – not only supported President Obama’s decision to end the Iraq war when he did, but he said that President Obama should have ended it years earlier. CNBC, in August 2011, Trump was asked about the decision to end the war in Iraq and he said, “Well, I think he could have gotten out a long time ago.” That said tonight, President Trump describing that decision to withdraw from Iraq as hasty and mistaken, saying he’s not going to make that mistake again in Afghanistan.

Trump cannot hide from his long history of rhetoric in which he repeatedly attacked former President Obama for doing something he, too, has now done as president – from taking vacations to boosting troops levels in the Middle East, as he proposed tonight.

While he continues to contradict himself and abandon his previous campaign pledges – pledges that most of us knew at the time would be impossible to fulfill – it remains to be seen whether any of his supporters will recognize they were sold a bill of goods during the campaign.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.